Part 30
I want to serve notice upon Mr. Coburn, chairman of the meeting, that Kansas must look well to her laurels as an alfalfa state, for Illinois is going to grow alfalfa and lots of it.
When I was preparing this ground for alfalfa and was applying manure, lime, phosphorus and inoculated soil, and when I was plowing and following with a subsoil plow and making a perfect seed-bed, my neighbors were not interested except to regard it as more folly and foolishness on my part, but when they saw the result and realized that the crop taken from one acre of that land was worth at least $100.00, and that it represented ten per cent interest on $1,000.00 as the value of the land per acre, they were compelled to take notice, and now they are, figuratively speaking, falling over themselves, to learn how it was done. There is no mistake about the effect of the demonstration. The farmers of that community saw the preparations; they saw the alfalfa growing; after it was cut; in the winrow; in the shock, and on the way to the barn. The lesson could not have been brought to them as effectively in any other way.
I want to reiterate my approval of the plan proposed, of placing a qualified instructor in every county devoted to agriculture, to do things on the farms that the farmers can see and show them how to procure the results they read and hear about.
I know that the plan is feasible and that it will bring results, for I have tried it.
We have reached the point in the extension of agricultural knowledge where less talk and more demonstration work is demanded.
If this Congress does nothing more than to get behind this movement and assist in making it the success it deserves, it will have accomplished more for the maintenance and increase of the fertility of the soil than any other agency, and helped to solve the greatest of all industrial problems.
Chairman COBURN—The report of the committee on resolutions, Mr. Fowler, chairman of the committee.
Mr. Fowler read the resolutions (which will be found in full at the beginning of this volume) to the Congress, framed and unanimously adopted by the following committee: Arkansas, E. N. Plank, Decatur; California, L. R. Glavis, San Francisco; Colorado, Dr. Hubert Work, Pueblo; Connecticut, Prof. J. W. Towney, Hartford; District of Columbia, W J McGee; Illinois, A. P. Grout, Winchester; Indiana, H. E. Barnard, Indianapolis; Iowa, J. R. Doran, Beaver; Kansas, Thomas Potter, Peabody; Louisiana, Oscar Dowling, Shreveport; Massachusetts, W. P. Wharton, Groton; Michigan, Henry N. Loud, Au Sable; Minnesota, A. W. Gutridge; Mississippi, H. L. Witfield, Columbus; Missouri, Dr. W. H. Black, Marshall; Montana, C. Q. O’Neil, Kalispell; Nebraska, Geo. Coupland, Elgin; New York, Albert B. Sheldon, Sherman; Ohio, Edmund Secrist, Wooster; Oklahoma, Thos. P. Smith, Muskogee; Oregon, M. J. Kinney, Portland; Pennsylvania, Dr. Harry S. Drinker, South Bethlehem; South Dakota, R. Newbanks, Pierre; Texas, W. H. Gray, Houston; Washington, Everitt Griggs, Tacoma; Wisconsin, Herbert Quick, Madison.
Chairman COBURN—You have heard the report of the committee on resolutions.
Delegate POTTER—I desire to move its adoption by this Congress of the able report that we have just heard read by the chairman of the committee on resolutions.
The motion was duly seconded.
Chairman COBURN—It has been regularly moved and seconded that the report of the committee as read be adopted. Are you ready for the question?
Delegate JOHN C. SHOFFER, of Chicago—As one looks over this hall and compares the number of suggestions made by the committee on resolutions, it would seem that there are more resolutions offered than there are delegates here. I think it is an unfortunate thing, sir, that this platform or these resolutions should go out as expressing the sentiment of this Congress. There are too many absentees to vote on this question at this time. If we are going to put this forward as an expression of this great Congress, the delegates should be here to vote on it, and not be bound by the vote of the few who are here this afternoon. It is not fair that this should go out as an expression of this Congress when there are only a handful of delegates left to vote on it.
Delegate CONDRA—We have a committee, one from each state. It is perfectly regular, and there is a pretty big handful here to vote on it.
Chairman COBURN—Are you ready for the question?
(Cries of question, question.)
All in favor of the motion to adopt the resolution as read, signify the same by saying aye. Contrary no. The motion is carried and the resolutions as read adopted.
[Resolutions will be found in front part of this volume.]
Delegate A. W. STUBBS, of Kansas City, Kan.—I realize what the gentleman has said, that the resolutions are very long, and I am greatly embarrassed by the enormity of the subject taken in hand by this National Congress. There has been one disappointment to me, and I have embodied that in a resolution which I believe will be appreciated by every delegate present, as well as by the officers who have had to sit and listen to some of the addresses, well intended, on this floor, but not germane to the subject at hand, and I have prepared this brief resolution to submit now, not as a part of the platform, but more as an expression from the delegates to this Congress.
_Resolved_, that we recommend to the executive committee of this Congress that in the preparation of future programs care be exercised to prevent the time of delegates being taken up by papers and speeches not germane to the purposes of the Congress, and that provision be made for brief discussion of papers presented by the delegates from the several states.
I move the adoption of this resolution.
The motion was duly seconded.
Chairman COBURN—You have heard the motion. It has been moved and seconded that the resolution as read by the gentleman be adopted. Are you ready for the question?
Mr. CONDRA—Will you please read the last section of that resolution?
Chairman COBURN—Will the gentleman read the last, about the several states?
Mr. STUBBS—And that provision be made for brief discussion of papers presented by the delegates from the several states. Many interesting papers have been read here, and many delegates have come hundreds of miles who would have been glad to say just a word perhaps, not any extended discussion, but express themselves from the body of the Congress, and expressions from a body like this would be found invaluable to the entire audience.
Mr. CONDRA—I asked the question because I misunderstood. I thought that he meant representation on the program from the various states, which would absolutely kill this Congress.
Mr. STUBBS—Oh, no.
Mr. CONDRA—I hope that the matter he refers to may be taken up and by departments, thus giving opportunity for further discussion.
Delegate POTTER—I don’t want any misunderstanding of the intent of this resolution. The author of it, as I understand it, does not mean to embody this in the general resolutions, but only as a suggestion of the desire of this Congress through our committee to make arrangements for the future.
Delegate STUBBS—That is correct.
Chairman COBURN—Those in favor of the adoption of the resolution as read say aye. Contrary no. Motion carried.
Chairman COBURN—Our program for the afternoon is now concluded and a motion to adjourn until 8 o’clock this evening is in order.
Upon motion to adjourn, duly seconded, being put, was unanimously carried, and Congress adjourned until 8 o’clock p. m.
_CLOSING SESSION._
President WHITE—Ladies and Gentlemen of the third National Conservation Congress will now come to order. I will introduce as the first speaker Prof. William Hoynes, Professor of Law at Notre Dame University.
Professor HOYNES—Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: In the limited time at my disposal, aware as I am that Senator Owen and Mr. Bryan are to follow, I recognize the need of brevity, and though I shall contend that the conservation movement is but the fulfillment of a natural impulse or instinctive privilege as old as the human race, yet I shall do so in as few words as practicable. In short, what I have to say may be viewed in a threefold aspect, as conservation in respect to soil fertility, conservation in respect to waste and extravagance in the affairs of daily life and the utility of education as a means of furthering the efficacy of conservation and common sense in these matters.
As viewed by many the principle of conservation is of recent origin. But this is a mistake. It is as old as mankind. In reality it amounts simply to the natural protest of reason and experience against waste and extravagance. It originated simultaneously with the consciousness of the need of food, raiment and shelter for the protection and preservation of life.
As men struggled in the primitive ages to procure food for sustenance, the pelts of animals to cover their bodies and the shelter of caves or rudely constructed huts to protect them from the rigors of the elements and the incursions of prowling beasts and venomous reptiles, they at the same time realized the indispensableness of these things and the necessity and wisdom of conserving them.
As in the case of our own Indians, the struggle they made to obtain the necessaries of life taught them to be saving of what they procured in that line and to be vigilant in providing for the future. They took no more fish from the waters of lake or river than seemed necessary for actual use, they did not destroy wantonly the wild creatures of the forest, and the denizens of the air were free from trap and arrow beyond the range of hunger and necessity. Thus they conserved carefully the sources of their food supply, and the pathetic story of a Hiawatha had rarely to be told.
It was only on the coming of the white man, who did not specially rely upon such means of livelihood, that the wild creatures of the air, forest, prairie, plain, lake and river were heedlessly slaughtered, or wantonly destroyed in sport, or driven to hiding places in swamp or mountain.
It may thus be seen that when things are deemed essential to the maintenance of life the lesson of care in using and conservation in protecting and preserving them is brought home to the comprehension and firmly fixed in mind and habit. But when, on the other hand, things appear to be measurably superfluous or easy of acquisition, the sense of their value becomes abated and the spur of conservation blunted.
And so with the land, which to civilized man is the source of life’s sustenance and the basis of progress and prosperity. Heretofore in abundance and easily procured at moderate cost or for the mere taking of it under the homestead law, but little attention was bestowed upon the preservation of its fertility. When there came manifest and pressing occasion for keeping it up by the restoration of its exhausted elements the owners sold it for whatever it would bring and migrated to the easily procurable new lands of the great West. But now this movement has met with a decided check, for there is hardly any more arable free or cheap land to be had. The most desirable government land has been taken by settlers under the homestead law, and that which has been reclaimed under the irrigation system is held at comparatively startling prices. Thus exists a condition which is measurably responsible for the overflow of nearly a million of our people into the British possessions on the North, actuated by the lure of virgin soil and cheap lands. And even this door is now less ajar through the taking by first corners of the choicest holdings and the failure of our reciprocity negotiations.
The comparatively impoverished lands sold by those who sought new homes in the West were usually purchased by persons who knew little about farming, or took them as an experiment or for speculative purposes, and placed tenants on them—tenants whose chief aim was, not to restore the fertility of the soil, but to make it yield all the profit possible with the least possible outlay of money and labor.
But a halt has been called in this state of things, and mainly so, as it seems to us, through the instrumentality of the many agricultural boards, alliances and societies, not to mention the Grange and Department of Agriculture, that appear to have united or coöperated in the organization of this great conservation movement. There is a marked tendency, as observers must admit, to look backward to the neglected lands and abandoned farms. These are being sought again by the returning pioneers of the West or their descendants, and so probably to a greater extent relatively in the South than in the East. This counter-movement is unmistakable and has led to a notable and increasing advance in the prices of these lands during the past decade. The cause lies not alone in the acquisition by settlers of all the desirable free and cheap lands of the West, but also in the expected restoration of soil fertility in the South and East.
To this end the deliberations of the present Conservation Congress have in large measure justly and wisely tended. Much has been said, and well said, touching the study and utilization of scientific means to restore soil fertility in the case of impoverished lands throughout the country. It is a subject of paramount importance. It points to the possibility of increasing at least twofold the productiveness of our present acreage.
It will not be considered as digressing if I refer in this connection to the Agricultural Department at Washington and the state agricultural colleges, boards and societies as having conferred incalculable benefit through work in this line on the people and the country. Well would it be, too, if the suggestion of President Taft, made in the course of his address in this hall last Monday evening, could be realized and the Agricultural Department represented among the people by an intelligent and practical farmer in each county of the several states. It would bring directly to the notice of farming communities the most approved means of cultivating the soil and lead to wholesome emulation in restoring its fertility and insuring abundant crops.
I am strongly optimistic in regard to the natural resources of the country and would not venture to set bounds to the possibilities of our soil and climate. We know historically that for thousands of years untold millions of people have lived on the same land in China, Japan, Egypt and Europe. They have treated it as a living thing, feeding it with the elements requisite for its productiveness. So judiciously and systematically has this been done that in some quarters it yields twice as much to the acre as the average of our own land. I venture to predict, however, that the present movement toward soil enrichment will not fall short of attaining to a like standard of productiveness.
While the restoration of soil fertility has fittingly been the dominant theme of these proceedings, I am pleased to observe that they have taken a much wider range. Thus are vastly broadened the activities and usefulness of this body, and correspondingly is strengthened its claim upon the confidence, approval and coöperation of the public.
So much has been said in relation to the conservation of health, morality, religion, municipal government, deep waterways and the public welfare that it would be superfluous, even if time permitted, to touch again upon these subjects.
I may be pardoned, however, for referring somewhat specifically to education in the light of its saving and helpful influence. It inquires into, searchingly examines and intelligently determines what to do in the practical phases of conservation. It penetrates proposed plans and theories and warns against mistakes, waste and extravagance.
With the diversification and expansion of labor in the industrial domain its products became marvelously varied in form and utility. With the machinery which labor invented and introduced one man could accomplish tenfold as much in a given time as could previously be done by hand. The things produced by labor were thus enormously multiplied and cheapened, and this very fact, as in the case of land superabundance, led to deplorable waste and senseless extravagance.
Ignorance may appropriately be called the mother of these evils. Education is the antithesis of ignorance and may be depended upon to curb them. Ignorance is imitative rather than original, and the wastefulness attendant upon it grows with the expansion of luxury. The wage or income of unfortunates upon whom it has set its mark usually passes through their hands as freely as water through a conduit, often going for the purchase of things unnecessary and tawdry, if not actually harmful.
But they are not alone in this regard. It happens that no matter what may be the income of some men it goes promptly forth again on its merry round, and they are as poor at the end of the month or year as they were at its beginning. The cause ordinarily lies in absurd vanity or inexcusable wastefulness and argues lack of self-control and common sense.
Edison is credited with having recently stated as the result of his observations abroad that a French family could live comfortably on what an American family throws away. Other travelers have spoken to like effect, but with remarks applicable to Europe generally. It must be admitted, however, that the French rank first in this respect or in the practical application of domestic science and economy. They have evidently learned to apply the principle of conservation in the management of kitchen, dining room, household and purchases in the market. Were we to use like foresight, discrimination and economy the cost of living might be reduced from one-third to one-half. Would not this be an easily achievable and reasonably satisfactory solution of the harassing problem of high prices?
The knowledge that creditably adorns the mind and makes for independence should show the wisdom of such economy and not be humiliated by betrayal into imitation of the reckless extravagance characterizing the vulgar rich in pomp, dress and prandial excesses. Intelligently and sagaciously inculcated along these lines, such knowledge would revolt at the conditions indicated. To this end education of wider scope and a more practical turn is needed. It should be of a nature capable of grappling successfully with such problems and conditions.
Education, genuine and practical, is the most precious of possessions, surpassing in value to honorable and useful manhood all the vulgar hoards of selfish and pleasure-seeking wealth. True education teaches independence and self-respect and scorns temptation to compete with showy vulgarism in dress, dining and deportment. It is the key that unlocks the arcana of knowledge and surpasses all the dross of mine or mountain in bringing man into soulful communion with God. It makes clearer and more acceptable the duties we owe to country and to one another. It teaches courage in adversity and fortitude in affliction. It is a light that penetrates the gloom of doubt and makes plain the path of honor and usefulness. It illuminates in all directions the activities of this great movement and I congratulate you upon having recognized the fact and so generously acclaimed it in the proceedings of this Congress. (Applause)
President WHITE—I now take pleasure in introducing to the audience United States Senator Robert L. Owen of Oklahoma. (Applause)
Senator OWEN—Ladies and gentlemen, and delegates of the Conservation Congress, when called on to pay my respects to this great meeting for the purpose of bringing about a public sentiment which should sustain the conservation movement, I felt in duty bound to respond, and for that reason I delayed my departure from this city to spend a few moments to present my respects, my sympathies, and my support to this movement. (Applause) I believe in the conservation of our national resources, and I believe that no government should go beyond the sentiment of the people, of the Republic, in the direction of conservation, or of any other important progressive policy. (Applause) This audience, therefore, and this Congress, have a duty to perform, and that duty is to sustain public opinion upon these important matters, and give it a concrete form, that will make its impress upon the legislative and administrative branches of this government. I believe in the conservation of our forests; in the conservation of our land; the reclamation of arid lands; the reclamation of swamp lands; making accessible the lands that we have, by good roads and by the improvement of waterways. I believe in the conservation of our water powers, that they shall not pass into private hands for speculative purposes, but I believe above and beyond all in every form of conservation that may be well discussed. I believe in the conservation, above all other things, of human life and human efficiency. (Applause) It was for that reason that I took occasion to draft a bill, providing for a department of health with a secretary in the cabinet at the head of it. (Applause) And I was actuated to do that by the pitiful history which we had recorded in the last great war, the war with Spain. I remember so well that over 900 of our chosen young men, those who had offered their lives upon the altar of patriotism, those who were willing to fight the battles of the Republic, instead of being able to die in the service of their country upon the battle field, facing a hostile foe, were laid in their graves by a malignant disease, at Chickamauga. We lost nearly a thousand of our best men at Chickamauga. And why? Because of the gross, unspeakable ignorance of those who were charged with the preservation of the lives of those young men. (Applause) It is a noted fact that the flies came from the cesspools where the offal and waste of the camp was thrown, came from those cesspools, with the slime on their feet, with typhoid germs on their feet to poison the chosen youth of our land by thousands. That is not only a national tragedy, it is a national humiliation, and it is a disgrace to this Nation. Therefore I desire, together with thousands of other men, to put an end to that sort of thing by a department of health. I remember Herman Biggs’ map of lower New York where in a single house twenty-three cases of tuberculosis were recorded, and in the house next to it eighteen cases. So that those houses where the poor workmen go, without notice, were in fact nothing but charnal houses where they went to their death. We ought not, in a civilized nation, to permit that to continue. And I glory in the man who has been trying to preserve the health of this Nation. I glory in our magnificent Dr. Wiley. (Applause) And I feel a sense of personal happiness that the millions of microbes that move and have their being in impure food and drinks, did not get Wiley’s goat. (Applause)